23 Dec 2013

Last month I went to a sausage making lesson for The Modern Con. Have I even mentioned that I write occasional pieces it? Oh well, here goes! It was originally published here.

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Going to a sausage masterclass there’s quite a lot of obvious jokes to be made, but let’s just ignore them all okay? (PENIS! Okay, sorry, that’s out of the way now.)

Hudson Meats opened in Surrey Hills in 2007 and it has finally made its way to Melbourne! Located in Tok H Centre on Toorak Rd, you can buy anything from dry aged beef, pork from Byron Bay, Barossa chickens and Spanish jamón, to pickles from Brooklyn and my favourite carême pastry.

Micah Hewitt, Manager and Butcher, was our fearless leader for our sausage masterclass and he showed us how to make a traditional pork and fennel sausage before we attempted to make our own.

Hewitt opened with “fat is flavour!” True that. For sausages, it’s good to use meat that’s 20% fat to 80% meat. Pork is great to use because its fat melts at a higher temperature than beef for example, so it doesn’t all drip out of the sausage when it’s cooking.

Step 3. Start mixing together with your hands until the mixture starts to stick together. You can feel the texture change and it starts sticking to your fingers.

Step 4. Feed the pig’s intestine (I know, it was a bit gross and felt really slimy but at least it’s a la naturale!) onto the nozzle of the sausage maker.

Step 5. Get a friend to put pressure on the mince going in the top and start to crank the handle slowly and gently guide the sausage as it comes out. (Really trying to refrain from making some truly bad puns.) The casing should be full of mince, but still have enough room so you can twist them into smaller sausages later without the casing bursting.

Step 6. Tie off the casing and TA DAH! Sausage. These is actually the ones I made. The guys offered me a job until I found out how early I’d have to wake up in the morning.

I had a lot of dinners with sausages and they tasted darn good. So much more flavour than a regular store bought sausage. I’ve already visited Hudson Meats before and highly recommend them for any kind of delicious food stuffs. The guys are all really friendly and if you wander in without knowing what you want for dinner like I did, they’ll definitely be able to help you out.